Tiverton council adopts amended future land-use map and zoning changes after lengthy public hearing

The Tiverton Town Council voted Monday to adopt amendments to the town's Comprehensive Community Plan future land-use map and to approve corresponding changes to the zoning map after a long public hearing that drew residents, property owners and business representatives.

The council approved the future land-use amendments and then the matched zoning map amendments after hearing objections and questions from property owners who said the changes could reduce development potential on several small lots. The council also referred a set of proposed additional uses'0 including commercial marinas, breweries, distilleries, campgrounds and recycling centers'0 to the planning board for development of performance standards or specific objective criteria before the uses would appear in the town's use table.

The hearing drew a steady stream of residents and affected property owners who raised concerns about notice and whether the changes reflected local public input. Plat 310, lots 152 and 154 ' small commercial parcels on Main Road ' were pulled from the planning-board recommendations and left in their existing general commercial designation after owners asked the council to preserve the lots' current zoning. A separate request by several residents to remove portions of the parcel commonly known as Hicks Farm from proposed waterfront reclassification failed.

Property owner Michael Naddario told the council his small corner lot has been cleaned and marketed as general commercial and that proposed new waterfront setbacks and lot-coverage reductions would make redevelopment harder. "Changing it to Waterfront 2 would impose setbacks and reduce lot coverage," he said while asking the council to preserve the lot's existing commercial status.

Planning staff and planning-board representatives told the council the land-use amendments are intended to align future uses with both current uses and broader waterfront planning goals. Ashley Sweet, the town's consulting planner, described the Waterfront 2 designation as intended to "encourage a mixture of residential and low-impact service, retail, commercial and marine-related uses" near the water while keeping more intense industrial activity out of residential neighborhoods.

Council discussion centered on balancing long-term waterfront planning goals with property owners' near-term development rights, the limits of local authority, and the state review process. Several residents and speakers cited the Mount Hope Bay watershed and concerns about wetland impacts; planning staff noted the state planning office reviews comprehensive plan amendments and can require changes if state standards or watershed protections are at issue.

Actions taken: the council voted to adopt the future land-use map amendments as amended and then to adopt the zoning map changes as amended. The council also voted to refer a list of proposed uses ' commercial marinas, packaged liquor (retail) in selected districts, breweries and distilleries, campgrounds, and nonmunicipal recycling centers ' to the planning board for development of objective criteria and performance standards and asked for that work to be returned within a timeframe the council later discussed.

The council kept the public hearing open on the use-table and zoning-text items and continued the remainder of the zoning use-table discussion to the Feb. 24 meeting so the public and councilors could review the larger package of changes. Councilors and planning board members said the continuing deadline is driven in part by recent state statutory changes that required many special-use-permit standards be made explicit in local codes.

Why it matters: The council's votes change the town's long-range land-use map and district boundaries in places along the waterfront and near commercial strips. Those changes shape what types of development are clearly allowed as-of-right versus what would need special-use approvals, and they set the planning board's next work program for drafting the performance standards that will govern new or changed uses.

What's next: The planning board will draft and return recommended objective criteria and performance standards for the uses it was asked to study. The council left the public hearing open and scheduled further zoning-use-table deliberations for Feb. 24. The state planning office will review the comprehensive-plan amendment as required by Rhode Island law before it becomes effective.

Provenance: This article synthesizes the public hearing and votes recorded during the council meeting (public hearing opened at the comprehensive-plan agenda item and continued through the zoning/use table items).